Descriptive Bibliography

A Descriptive Bibliography

The search for indications of how Frederick Douglass intended his autobiography to read has meant the location and analysis of information sources such as his and others' manuscript remains and their correspondence. It was as important to establish for the first time the bibliographical history of Life and Times insofar as the production of different typesettings during Douglass's lifetime and the textual alterations occurring between their respective printings could prove revelatory of intentions. In the case of Life, the bibliographical sources of textually significant information are four series of printings in which its author had opportunities to affect the way his work would read: the two American typesettings, or editions, that the Park Publishing Company created in 1881 and the following year; the single English edition that the Christian Age Office derived from the first American edition's first printing in 1882; and the expanded version of the second American edition for which DeWolfe, Fiske and Company originated the plates for the "Third Part" of Life in 1892. Documented here are the four sequences to which the "Textual Afterword" refers.

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DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                                                     543

A1. First American Edition, First Printing Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing, 1881

Title page: 29 lines. 'LIFE AND TIMES│OF                                                                                     FREDERICK DOUGLASS,│WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.│HIS EARLY LIFE AS A SLAVE, HIS ESCAPE FROM BONDAGE, AND HIS COMPLETE HISTORY│TO THE│PRESENT TIME│[seven lines with progressively more narrow widths :] INCLUDING HIS CONNECTION WITH THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT; HIS LABORS IN GREAT│BRITAIN AS WELL AS IN HIS OWN COUNTRY; HIS EXPERIENCE IN THE CONDUCT OF AN INFLUENTIAL NEWSPAPER; HIS CONNECTION WITH THE UNDERGROUND│RAILROAD; HIS RELATIONS WITH JOHN BROWN AND THE HARPER'S│FERRY RAID; HIS RECRUITING THE 54th AND 55th MASS. COLORED REGIMENTS; HIS INTERVIEWS WITH│PRESIDENTS LINCOLN AND JOHNSON;│[seven lines with progressively more narrow widths:] HIS APPOINTMENT BY GEN. GRANT TO ACCOMPANY THE SANTO DOMINGO COMMISSION; ALSO│TO A SEAT IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; HIS APPOINTMENT AS│UNITED STATES MARSHAL BY PRESIDENT R. B. HAYES; ALSO HIS APPOINTMENT│BY PRESIDENT J. A. GARFIELD TO BE RECORDER OF DEEDS IN│WASHINGTON; WITH MANY OTHER INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT EVENTS OF HIS MOST│ EVENTFUL LIFE; WITH AN INTRODUCTION,│BY MR. GEORGE L. RUFFIN, OF BOSTON. [single rule] HARTFORD, CONN.:│ PARK PUBLISHING CO.│ 1881.'.

Copyright page: 3 lines. 'COPYRIGHTED BY PARK PUBLISHING Co.,│1881.'.

Pagination: [i-iii] iv-xii [no pages numbered xiii-xiv] xv-xxiii [xxiv] [no pages numbered 1-12]  13-516  [517-18].

Collation: [1]¹²  2  17¹²  [18  22]¹². Signed on rectos of first leaves and (with asterisk at right of signature number) on rectos of fifth leaves. Not integral are the 18 leaves on which appear the frontispiece portrait leaf facing the title page ([l]₁ r) and the 17 illustrations tipped-in between these pages:            22  23: The Last Time He Saw His Mother            50  51: Whipping of Old Barney            56  57: Gore Shooting Denby            70  71: Mrs. Auld Teaching Him to Read            132  33: Found in the Woods by Sandy            168  69: Driven to Jail for Running Away            196  97: His Present Home in Washington            206  07: At the Wharf in Newport            234  35: Fighting the Mob in Indiana            276  77: Portrait of John Brown            336  37: Portrait of William Lloyd Garrison            386  87: Portrait of Wendell Phillips (no caption, signature at foot)

544                                                                                              DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

       416-17: Charles Sumner (no caption, signature at foot)        420-21: Commissioners to Santo Domingo        434-35: Marshall at the Inauguration of Pres. Garfield        454-55: Revisits His Old Home        502-03: Abraham Lincoln (no caption, signature at foot)

Contents:  [i]: title page; [ii]: copyright page; [iii] iv-xii: introduction by George L. Ruffin; xv-xxiii: table of contents; [xxiv]: blank; 13-516: text; [517-18]: blank.

Typography and Paper:  6  l/2" (6  3/16") X 3  25/32" (p. 299). 36 lines per page (but 35 lines on p. 225). Running heads: uniform, recto and verso, for 'INTRODUCTION.' and 'CONTENTS.', except on their first pages; thereafter, except on the first pages of chapters, the running head of each recto and verso is unique and glosses the text. White wove paper, .005" thick. sheets bulk 1  1/4".

Text:  xi.4-8: shelter; and as to riding in public conveyances, mean spirited conductors at one time made it a rule to put all col-│ored people, nolens volens, in the smoking car. Many times│was Douglass subjected to this indignity.  [New paragraph:] The        xi.26-29: platform. Free speech was violated; Boston was disgraced; but the Chairman of that meeting was not intimi-│dated . [New paragraph:] It xii.6: Boston. Sept. 1st, 1881.        xxii.28-29 [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART', no summary for Chapter XV]: CHAPTER XV.│"Weighed in the balance."        xxiii.17 [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART', summary for chapter XVIII:] Other Friends—Woman Suffrage—Concluding Thoughts.        xxiii.18 [Table of contents, ' SECOND PART':] CHAPTER XIX. [No chapter title nor a chapter summary.]        xxiii.19 [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART', last line on page:] APPENDIX.        336.13: disproval        415.2: "WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE." [No chapter summary follows.]        459.1: XVI. [Chapter XVII in 'SECOND PART' is misnumbered 'XVI.'.]        516.17: [Last line of text :] chance in the race of life.

Binding A: Dark red calico. Front and back blindstamped, a double-rule rectangle box with three lines within: three floral figures at top, female and eagle figures at center, and three floral figures at bottom. Spine: nine lines gold-stamped. '[horizontal row of dotted crosses]│LIFE│AND│TIMES OF FRED'K DOUGLASS [single rule dotted at ends]│ILLUSTRATED│[horizontal row of dotted crosses]'. Striped headbands at top and bottom. Edges trimmed 7  29/32" X 5 1/16". White wove endpapers.

Binding B: Same as Binding A except female and eagle figures on front are goldstamped; trimmed edges are gilded.

Publication: Copyright registration (title and description) on 3 September 1881

DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                                                     545

and deposit on 23 November 1881. Available for sale in England in March 1882 (English Catalogue of Books for 1882).

Locations: Binding A: Frederick Douglass Papers Editorial Office; National Library of Scotland; and Green Library, Stanford University (signed by Alexander H. Stephens, dated March 11, 1882). Binding B: Schomburg Center (inscribed by Douglass, 'To my Dear Daughter│Rosetta│Xmas│1881'); Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester. Rebound: Butler Library, Columbia University; Schomburg Center (2 copies).

A2. First American Edition, Second Printing            Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., et al., 1882

Same as the first printing, binding A, except for:

Title page: 31 lines, no single rule below 'OF BOSTON.' (line 25), lines 26-31: 'HARTFORD, CONN.:│PARK PUBLISHING CO.│GEO. M. REWELL & CO., Cleveland, Ohio; J. S. GOODMAN & CO., CHICAGO, ILL.;│SUN PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS. MO.; PHILLIPS & HUNT,│SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.│1882.'.

Pagination: [i-iii] iv-xx [xxi-xxii] 13-518.

Contents: [i] title page; [ii]: copyright page; [iii] iv-xi: introduction by Ruffin; xiixx: table of contents; [xxi]: list of illustrations (frontispiece portrait and 17 plates); [xxii]: blank; 13-518: text.

Text: xi.4-5: shelter. [New paragraph:] The [See Note.]            xi.23-24: platform. [New paragraph:] It [See Note.]            xi.36: [No date below:] GEORGE L. RUFFIN. [See Note.]            xix.29-33: [Table of contents. 'SECOND PART', title of Chapter XV:] WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. [Chapter summary:] The Santo Domingo controversy—Decoration Day at Arlington, 1871—│Speech delivered there— National colored convention at New Orleans,│1872—Elector at large for the State of New York—Death of Hon.│Henry Wilson.            xix.34: [Table of contents. 'SECOND PART': 'CHAPTER XVI.' in first printing here reads 'CHAPTER X' due to type-wear.]            xx.17: [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART', summary for chapter XVIII:]— Other Friends—Woman Suffrage.            xx.18-22: [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART', chapter title and summary:] CHAPTER XIX│RETROSPECTION' Meeting of colored citizens in Washington to express their sympathy│at the great national bereavement, the death of President Garfield—│Concluding reflections and convictions.            xx.23-26: [Table of contents, 'SECOND PART':] APPENDIX.│Oration at the unveiling of the Freedmen's monument, at Lincoln Park,│Washington, D.C., April 14, 1876-Extract from a speech delivered│at Elmira, N.Y., August 1, 1880.            415.3-6: [Chapter summary:] The Santo Domingo controversy—Decoration